Rog Kaz

Day 56 - Thursday 30th March The Facts: Flight to Bora Bora Shark and ray feeding Grey sharks diving The longer version: An early start took us back to Papeete Airport where we had an Air Tahiti flight to Bora Bora via one of the smaller islands. The views were spectacular with all islands having some beautiful green multi- coloured lagoons around them. Bora Bora itself was just as spectacular as it is in all the brochures, although some cloud covered the highest peak. Straight to the Hotel Maitai Polynesia, where after several reminders, we were picked up for our activity of Ray and Shark Feeding. This is generally pretty harmless except for when your guide wears outfits such as ours did as the photos demonstrate. We spent time in the water with the reef ... read more

Day 48 - Wednesday 22nd March The Facts: San Pedro de Atacama Ecological tour Moon Valley Astronomical tour The longer version: An easy start to the morning, with a tour or the Ecological sites around San Pedro de Atacama, including a visit to the museum full of mummies. The dry climate ensures that objects are very well preserved, so there are many artefacts and mummies from earlier times in this region. We also went to an old village (Tulor), of which 7% has been excavated, and we can see how they lived in round buildings. The other stop on the tour was to a Pukara, or a mountainside fortress. Our guide was also able to show us the foods of the area, so we tasted all these things that were falling off tress! The afternoon ... read more

Day 41 - Wednesday 15th March The Facts: Buenos Aires Bike tour Evitas grave Flight to Tucuman The Longer Version: As we left the lush surrounds of our hotel, Ayres de Recoletta, we made our way through the streets of Buenos Aires (BA) to our meeting place at the Plaza. Here we collected our steel steeds and guides and departed on a death defying cycle tour of BA. Starting with a tour of the Falklands war memorial, we headed passed most of the famous landmarks in BA, in just a few short hours. We dodged traffic, dog poo and tango dancers as we saw the sights and learnt the history of BA. At the conclusion we walked back and to the Recoletta cemetery, one of the famous visiting points in BA, and eventually stumbled across ... read more

Day 29 - Friday 3rd March The Facts: Travel from El Calafate to Puerto Natales The longer version: Early start and we were on the bus to Chile. A great ride across the grassy slopes of the Patagonian Steppe. We encountered many Nandu (Andean Ostriches) though we aren’t sure whey the bus driver stopped from time to time, no announcements were made. We survived some more border crossings with Roger getting smiles from the guards. Not sure if it was the beard that wasn’t on the passport photo, or the special Antarctica stamps in his passport. Puerto Natales had much better trekking food, but we spent along time looking for Methylated Spirits. In South America it is Alcohol pronounced Alkol and is purchased at Chemists! Day 30 - Saturday 4th March The Facts: To Torres ... read more

Day 15 - Friday 17th Feb The Facts: At sea Activities: Living with Albatross Albatross and the long-line fisheries Wildlife Watch 5 Course Russian dinner The longer version Heading towards the South Orkney islands and Antarctica we continued to encounter high seas which Roger photographed from the bridge of the boat whilst also discussing the finer points of bird watching with the bird watchers. Karen ate cheese, crackers and some mashed potato for each meal. Rest assured that a comeback was made in time for the Russian feast. Day 16- Saturday 18th February The Facts: Coronation Island landing Lectures: Pinnipeds II Ice is nice The longer version: We awoke to a beautiful morning cruising amongst the big tabular icebergs in the South Orkney Islands. We did a shore landing and discovered that the Gentoo penguin colony ... read more